


04:01

by flightlesswish



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Horror, M/M, Thriller, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 20:51:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3223049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightlesswish/pseuds/flightlesswish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Mama, why does that <i>oppa</i> have no shadow?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	04:01

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a repost from my LJ account. There will be some minor changes in this story to fix some grammatical errors I've found but unable to fix on my LJ account. I've spotted some missing words and grammatical errors after I posted this story on LJ, but for some unknown reason LJ won't let me fix it. I will edit the story from time to time when I find more errors. The changes won't affect the story whatsoever.
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story. I write fiction not reality.

 

 

 

 _Joonmyun._  
  
The choked low-baritone voice echoes across the dark, empty hallway. Joonmyun stops abruptly and turns his gaze over his shoulder, and waits. The voice is oddly familiar, but he cannot recall to whom it belongs. He averts his gaze back forward after sixty seconds of nothing but his steady breathing and strides faster this time, until he’s standing in front of an old and sturdy-looking black door. He can feel the air has grown significantly colder around him and the silence is almost deafening.   
  
He takes a deep breath and reaches in, trailing his fingers across the rough surface, aiming for the rusty yet firm handle.  
  
_Please._  
  
A staccato beats of music starts playing. His grip falters and he can feel the crumbs of rusts rough against his skin, cutting a few parts raw.   
  
The voice is now ahead of him. It comes from behind the door, and he can’t help but to wonder why it sounds so broken and how it gives out an ethereal feeling; sorrow and  _agony_  bleeding into the air for him to inhale. He furrows his eyebrows, teeth digging into his lower lip, and a whisper blows past him from behind like a ghost of winter breeze, catching him off-guard.   
  
_Say it._  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Joonmyun snaps his eyes open.   
  
He blinks to focus his blurry sight.   
  
He’s in his classroom, cheek pressed against the smooth surface of his desk. His neck feels stiff from the awkward angle he had been sleeping at and his heartbeats are an erratic mess. He lifts his head slowly and runs his fingers across his jet black hair, his gaze travels towards the clock hung on the wall after he has carefully scanned his surrounding; feeling rather perplexed.   
  
_A dream, huh._  
  
It’s 5.15 p.m. His last class has supposedly ended two hours and a quarter previously as scheduled so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’s no one in sight. He loosens the black tie around the collar of his wrinkled white uniform shirt and sighs. It’s that he can’t recall why, when, and how he fell asleep that bugs his mind. The last thing he does remember is Chanyeol asking him to join him and the other guys for lunch, which must have been a few hours ago.   
  
Furrowing his eyebrows, he gets on his feet and slings his backpack over his shoulders. There’s an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach from the sense of solitude but it’s not like it’s the first time he sees his class empty, or being alone in general. After all, he’s the class president and has stayed behind to do some assignments from his homeroom teacher and such, but somehow today feels peculiarly different.   
  
The school is quiet, almost eerily so, and it brings chills down his spine as the autumn breeze blows past him and a few dried leaves dance to their deaths beneath his feet; helplessly crushed and torn apart into smaller pieces.   
  
The security  _ahjussi_  is sitting down on his usual plastic chair just behind the school gate, his expression wary as he gazes onto the deserted road outside. Joonmyun clutches onto the straps of his backpack tighter and strides faster to approach the older man. “Mr Park, hello,” he says politely with an apologetic smile and a slight bow. “I’m sorry, am I the last one?”  
  
Mr Park doesn’t look at him for a good minute and instead keeps on gazing outside the gate. Joonmyun’s smile falters as Mr Park averts his gaze slowly to him, dark-brown eyes unreadable. Mr Park doesn’t say anything at all and simply stares, eyebrows slightly furrowed as if he’s in the process of solving a particularly difficult riddle.  
  
“Is something wrong?” Joonmyun bites his lower lip, apprehension starting to sink in.  
  
A sigh escapes the older’s chapped lips. A single shake of head. “Just. Go,” he says wearily and Joonmyun thinks it somehow almost sounds like a plea. “Please.”  
  
A worn-out repetition.  
  
Joonmyun flashes a tentative smile. Looks like it’s been a long day.  “See you tomorrow, then, Mr Park.”  
  
After another bow and a sadness-filled smile in return, Joonmyun shuffles out of the school and to the bus stop nearby. His bus comes in another ten minutes and he boards quietly, choosing to sit in the unoccupied last row. There are six more passengers aside of him, each wandering off in their own world.  
  
The sky is now a canvas of darkness with a yellowish full moon hanging firmly in between the murky clouds. Joonmyun sinks back into his seat and takes out his iPod, plugging his ears with obnoxious upbeat songs to keep himself awake.   
  
He gets off forty-five minutes later at the stop just a few blocks away from his house in Apgujeong. A girl in what he recognizes as the neighboring school uniform gets off with him, her straight black hair falls graciously bosom-length. She’s a just a few centimeters shorter than him and probably has a nice smile too, if only she didn’t wear a frown on her rather pale face as she waits for whoever on the end of the line to pick up her call.  
  
He waits for the traffic light to turn red beside her, hands slipped casually into his grey uniform pants pockets and foot tapping against the pavement in an incoherent rhythm. The sound of cars passing by muffles the girl’s timid  _hello_.  
  
Joonmyun steals a glance at the girl when the countdown on the traffic light shows a glaring 10. The girl is speaking in hushed whispers.  
  
“Have you heard?” He hears the girl say, “Yes. I’m at the bus stop right now, can you pick me up? Please? I have no friends with me.”  
  
A pause. Joonmyun drops his gaze to the ground and waits.  _Six_.  
  
“He lived in the neighborhood, you know?” She says almost exasperatedly.  _Two_.  
  
A sigh. “No, of course I am  _not_  afraid of — “   
  
The bright green turns into a glaring red for the vehicles to stop and Joonmyun steps forward to cross, the rest of the girl’s conversation quickly swallowed by the symphony of Apgujeong’s evening traffic life.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There’s no one home when Joonmyun enters the apartment. He switches the lights on, takes off his shoes at the front and drops his backpack and blazer uniform on the couch, fingers snaking up to untie his necktie off his collar.   
  
There’s a newspaper lying on the dining table and it’s dated 16 September 2013, which was three days previously,  _South Korea-Japan Joint Military Training_  glaring as the headline in bold letters. Frowning, he walks to the fridge and finds no post-its explaining where his parents and brother are. The most recent one says  _Joonma, don’t forget to eat!_  from one of his mom’s pink ones and is dated 17/09/13. He fishes his cellphone out of his backpack to check for any missed calls and messages but to his dismay, it’s off out of battery.  
  
_Perhaps they just forgot to write_ , he muses as he gets a glass of water. It’s not like it’s the first time. His parents are busy and often have to go on business trips away for a few days and sometimes weeks and he does remember his father saying something about doing research in Busan with his mom tagging along. Meanwhile his brother, well, he’s an adult now and every now and then he sleeps over at one of his friends’.  
  
He has kimchi  _ramyeon_  as dinner before retreating to the bed just a little before midnight, tucking himself into the warmth of blanket as the sound of muffled rain infiltrates his hearing.  
  
He closes his eyes after a few knocks of raindrops against the window glass and lets himself fall into the embrace of darkness.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
There are two policemen at the school gate when Joonmyun arrives the next morning. They are talking to Mr Park who simply looks grim. They look serious and the conversation is carried on with low voices so no one else can hear.   
  
Most of the students also talk in hushed whispers, while the rest don’t talk at all. They all wear similar expressions of anxiety and fear. In the classroom, Joonmyun slings his backpack on the chair and sits, eyes observing his classmates entering with what he recognizes as reluctance.   
  
Chanyeol and Baekhyun enter the class together five minutes sharp before the bell rings and walk to their respective seats immediately without so much fooling around that they usually do. They also have the same expression as the rest of the school and Joonmyun frowns, because he, now,  must be missing  _something_  because Chanyeol and Baekhyun always have their silly smiles and mischief eyes on.  
  
Mr Jung enters not long after the bell rings, eyes downcast and expression weary like there’s a mountain of invisible burden resting on his shoulders. He settles his briefcase on his desk in front and sits, resting his chin on his clasped hands. A smile grows on his lips as he lifts his gaze onto the students. Joonmyun notices that the teacher’s smile falters a bit when his gaze meets with an unocuppied desk on the second row. Joonmyun follows his gaze and raises his eyebrows.   
  
Looks like Do Kyungsoo, the quiet class’ secretary, is absent today.  
  
Mr Jung meets Joonmyun’s eyes next and his smile is filled with so much sadness that makes him wonder what could possibly happen to the older man that creates that kind of smile.  
  
The class begins soon after without further ado and today it’s mostly filled with silence on students’ part. It’s also the same with the other classes for the rest of the day. It almost feels like a monologue, and the teachers don’t seem to mind like they usually do; refraining from picking out students who seem like not paying attention randomly to answer questions on the current topic. Even Chanyeol and Baekhyun look like they’re really paying attention to the lessons for once. It’s not bad, Joonmyun thinks, but it’s... Weird. Maybe because it’s a first.  
  
During the recess, Joonmyun approaches Chanyeol who stays on his chair, long fingers massaging his temples. The others are out for lunch and the only ones in the class are the both of them and Baekhyun, who’s planting his face flat on his desk.   
  
“Yo Chanyeol,” Joonmyun says with a little smile, indulges himself to sit on Kyungsoo’s empty chair in front of  Chanyeol’s desk. “What’s happening? Why is everyone acting gloomy?”  
  
Chanyeol closes his eyes for a brief moment before snapping them back open, a slight frown on his face. “Uh,” he says as he averts his gaze to Baekhyun, who’s walking towards them with an unreadable expression. “Baekhyun?”  
  
Baekhyun stands beside Chanyeol, arms crossed against his chest in contemplation. “Joonmyun,” he says in a low tone after a few strings of thoughts, eyes surprisingly soft. “How are you today?”  
  
Joonmyun raises an eyebrow. Baekhyun usually isn’t the one with pretenses. “I’m fine thank you?”  
  
To his surprise, Baekhyun smiles, although it’s less bright than the ones he used to play on his lips. “Good,” he says with a chuckle, “Good.”  
  
There’s an awkward pause. Joonmyun clears his throat. “So where’s Kyungsoo? Why is he absent? It’s a first, right? He’s never absent before,”  
  
Chanyeol and Baekhyun are visibly tensed at the mention of Kyungsoo’s name. Joonmyun stares at them both questioningly. “What?”  
  
“He’s...” Baekhyun pauses and it looks like he’s giving his answer a better thought. He decides to gaze at Chanyeol and shakes his head. “Why don’t we have lunch? I’m starving. You’re coming too?” He says with a tentative smile to Joonmyun.  
  
In his peripheral vision, Joonmyun sees Chanyeol heaving a sigh and shaking his head. “No. You know what, I’ll just stay and take a nap. My head’s aching. Wake me up when the bell rings,” he mumbles and props his lanky arms on the desk to use them as a pillow, pressing his cheek against them and closes his eyes, hence ending the conversation.   
  
Baekhyun flashes Joonmyun an apologetic smile after kicking Chanyeol’s too long legs under the desk. Chanyeol lets out a whimper but doesn’t move. Joonmyun shrugs it off and Baekhyun heads to the cafeteria by himself, leaving him and Chanyeol alone in the quiet classroom.   
  
Joonmyun shifts on the chair to turn to the front and leans back. The seat feels rather cold and he wonders whether it’s due to the weather or it’s always been this cold on this part of the class, since he’s always been sitting beside the window since the first year.  
  
The quietness that follows feels uncomfortable against his skin and he wants to smack Chanyeol awake so the taller can crack jokes or being Chanyeol in general, but he stays still. Chanyeol’s soft snores play in rhythm with his own heartbeats and before he knows it, the bell rings.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
They don’t talk for the rest of the day.   
  
Baekhyun and Chanyeol scurried out of the class when the bell rings without waiting for Joonmyun. There’s nothing to be taken care of today, since Mr Jung, his homeroom teacher didn’t give him any class-related matters to work on, so he decides to go straight home. On his way to the entrance gate, he notices that the policemen he saw this morning are already gone and there’s only Mr Park who looks like he’s on the verge of dozing off in his plastic chair.  
  
Joonmyun heads over to the bus stop wordlessly and boards on, taking a seat behind two chatting girls in the bus home. This time, Joonmyun doesn’t take out his iPod to block out the world and simply sits still, midlessly listening to the girls’ chatter. It is, apparently, of a murder.  
  
“Yeah, they said they’ve already got the suspect but it’s still scary, you know?” The girl with a bob hair says. Joonmyun furrows his eyebrows and unconsciously leans forward, all ears. “I wonder how scared the students must be.”  
  
Joonmyun can almost see the girl with a long hair shrugs. “Seoul Arts is a reputable high school after all. Who knows there’d be a murder happening right under their noses? God, I remember studying hard to get in there but now I’m just thankful I didn’t.”  
  
Joonmyun’s eyes widen in surprise. A murder? In his own school?  
  
_What._  
  
“I just hope they’d catch the killer soon,” the bob girl murmurs, “I don’t want to go to school with fear of being killed.”  
  
The bus comes to a halt after twenty minutes and the girls rush out immediately, leaving Joonmyun with a sleeping old man in the front row on board.  
  
Joonmyun sinks back to his seat, taken aback by the conversation he’s just heard.  _A murder...?_  
  
A frown makes its way to his face as he tries to remember about that particular matter. He doesn’t remember any murders commited at his school. If there’s a murder recently, he should have known, right?  _Come on, Joonmyun, think._  
  
By the time the bus halts at his stop, he still can’t come up with a better explanation. He walks home with a whirlwind of thoughts but nothing satisfies him.   
  
There’s no one home when he enters the apartment and it’s perfectly the same as it was when he left for school this morning. He takes off his shoes, drops his backpack on the couch, and frowns. There’s too many things he can’t comprehend right now, and it feels quite unnerving because how come he seems to be missing out so much?  
  
He takes his blazer uniform off and opts to turn on the TV instead of going for shower first like he always has. A music show is on and the popular rookie chinese-korean boyband is performing a song with what he thinks a lot of  _eureureong eureureong_  or something, he’s not really sure. He gives up after fifteen minutes of changing channels and finding nothing. He decides to take a long, hot shower, letting the water washes out his thoughts and evaporates his worries for the time being.  
  
It’s a little before ten that he realizes that there’s a newspaper inside the small trashbin on the corner of his bedroom. Frowning, he takes it out gingerly and finds that the headline, to his confusion, is torn off. It’s not torn off neatly, so he guesses someone must have ripped it off by bare hands hastily. He carefully flips to the next page to find it’s a 18 September 2013 newspaper. A few more parts of the newspaper are also similarly torn off.   
  
After some thoughts, he decides to give Baekhyun a call and grabs his cellphone, but it won’t turn on despite he has charged the battery full. Maybe it’s broken; he’s been using this one for years anyway. He makes his way back to the living room and dials Baekhyun’s number with the house phone.  
  
“Baekhyun, hi,” he immediately says after an exhausted  _yeoboseyo_ chimes in from the other end. “I know it’s random and all but I think I kinda missed out on some things? I heard there’s a freaking  _murder_  at our school recently and I can’t seem to remember any of it, and there’s a newspaper with its headline and other parts torn off in my bedroom and I don’t even know why,” Joonmyun pauses and releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I can’t come up with any plausible explanation and it’s kinda frustrating. Please kindly explain to me what the hell is going on.”  
  
There’s a pregnant pause before Baekhyun answers. “Joonmyun?”  
  
Joonmyun sighs. “Yes, Baekhyun.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun says so quietly that Joonmyun thinks he’s misheard it. “I’m really sorry. About Kyungsoo. About  _everything_. I should have seen this coming.”   
  
A set of muffled sobs. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything. God, I’m so  _sorry_ ,”  
  
“Kyungsoo?” Joonmyun echoes numbly.  
  
_Do Kyungsoo...?_  
  
The muffled sobs turn into soft and weak chuckles after a few heartbeats. “Why don’t you rest, Joonmyun? It’s already late, don’t you think?”  
  
Joonmyun inhales deeply and it comes out shaky. “Yeah. See you, Baek.”  
  
He doesn’t wait for Baekhyun’s reply and ends the call, legs suddenly weak. He sinks to the floor, brings his knees against his chest and closes his eyes. Amidst the darkness of his mind, he can see the girls in the bus, Mr Jung’s sad smile, torn newspaper and the policemen he saw this morning.   
  
And the empty desk.  
  
How could he not know?  
  
The next time he opens his eyes, Kim Joonmyun is certain of three things.  
  
First, a murder happened recently at his school.   
  
Second, Do Kyungsoo, the quiet class’ secretary, is the victim.  
  
Third, he’s going to find out who did it and why.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The next morning, Joonmyun wakes up to what he thinks smell a lot like fresh toasts, sunny side-ups, and warm milk. He rises from the bed and yawns, hand makes its way to rub his bleary eyes. He blinks and searches for the time: it’s seven in what he assumes a cheerful Saturday morning, if the sunlight peeking through the curtain is any indication.  
  
He stretches his arms and walks out, heading straight to the source of delicious smell. It’s not surprising that it comes from the kitchen, but he is surprised that his parents are there; his mother laying out the food on the dining table and his father sits on one of the chairs, reading a book.  
  
“You’re back,” Joonmyun says casually with a smile and takes a seat across his father. “How’s the trip?”  
  
His mother stops plating the breakfast and lifts her gaze. His father stops reading promptly, lifting his gaze to his youngest son. There’s a pair of dark weight of sleepless nights under his eyes. He says nothing and puts the book on the table, and if Joonmyun didn’t know better, he’d think his father was shaking; but of course he isn’t. His father didn’t even flinch when his brother decided that that particular Saturday night should be dedicated to a  _Saw_ marathon.  
  
“Joonmyun,” his father begins after a deep breath, “You — “  
  
“It was great,” his mother cuts him off, a smile tugs on the corners of her unpolished lips, eyes on her husband’s briefly before averting her gaze to Joonmyun. Those dark-brown orbs are as warm as Joonmyun remembers. “It was really great, Joonmyun.”  
  
Joonmyun beams at his mom and grabs a toast, shoving it into his mouth blissfully. Just like expected, foods made by his mom are the best. He continues munching on the toast and takes a sunny side-up, then finishes them off with a glass of warm milk. He clasps his hands and says  _jal meogeosseumnida_  cheerfully. An awkward silence follows and Joonmyun raises his eyebrows, eyeing his seemingly dazed parents in question.  
  
Joonmyun personally thinks family has been a happy one. Although there are times when his parents can’t be home and be there for him 24/7, but he knows that they love each other so much. They’re one of those families that appreciate certainty and not the unexpected; everything has to be planned and measured out so preparation for impact can be carried out smoothly to keep the damage to the minimum.   
  
Maybe that’s why when his mother suddenly bursts out to tears, he’s left dumbfounded and dazed, unable to react properly and just sits there, unmoving.  
  
His mother refuses to say anything on why she’s crying and stays by his side for the rest of the day, preventing him to go out and sleeps beside him at night, singing lullabies from his childhood for him to sleep. When he closes his eyes and eventually drifts off to sleep, he thinks he hasn’t been feeling this safe since a long, long time.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Joonmyun stays home with his family for Sunday and everything is alright and relaxing, his mother showering her affections to him excessively since yesterday’s breakfast and his father is, well, he’s just being himself and drown himself in printed words Joonmyun never has the chance to read. With the amount of words he’s devoured throughout the years, it’s can be a blessing or a curse sometimes how his father never wastes his time to speak them as much as he’s read.  
  
Joonmyun goes to school on Monday morning as usual, although this time with some struggle because his mother says he should stay at home instead. After a few attempts of conviction that, among many others, yes, he will be extra careful and no, he will not hang out after school and go straight back home. He wonders what could possibly make his mother so worried and the murder flashes in his mind.   
  
_Ah._  
  
Perhaps that’s why his mother has been so emotional these days. Perhaps she’s just glad that the murder didn’t happen to  _him_. He shudders at the horrifying thought.  
  
Poor Kyungsoo.   
  
He was a good friend.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
School proceeds as usual. Students and teachers seem to be more cheerful than they had been last week, and Joonmyun can’t help but feel grateful for the change. There are smiles and even occasional laughter, albeit not as lively as they were before, coming out from the class’ pranksters Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Joonmyun hides a smile behind his maths textbook. It feels nice to see everything is going back to normal again.  
  
He hasn’t been able to bring up the murder into a discussion with either of them and, in fact, he’s almost forgotten about it since the class starts, mind fully occupied with algebras and integrals. He takes a glace at the seat near the door. Kyungsoo’s seat remains empty.  
  
The bell declaring recess rings and Joonmyun plants cheek against the desk, eyes observing the cotton-like clouds swimming in the blue sky outside the window. He blinks his eyes a few times as sleep suddenly looms in his eyes out of nowhere. He glances lazily at his wristwatch and 04.00 p.m. stares at him in return. Frowning, he lifts his head and searches for the time hung on the wall. It’s still 01.00 p.m. He lets a sigh escape his lips and folds his arms on the desk, using them as a pillow.  _First my cellphone and now my wristwatch, great,_  he thinks wryly and closes his eyes, soon drifting off to sleep amidst his classmates’ chatters in a mock lullaby. A few minutes of shut-eye won’t hurt, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The next time he opens his eyes, he’s standing on the same dark hallway in his dream the week previously. This time, it isn’t as dark and he can make out some rustling sound of what he assumes leaves, nearby. He steps forward and with each step, he gets a feeling that this place is both familiar and foreign at the same time, which is kind of perplexing. Sharpening his senses, he keeps walking onwards in silence until there’s a sound of a door creaking open.  
  
_Come on in._  
  
Joonmyun stops abruptly and turns around.   
  
There’s nothing there.  
  
He can almost hear a smile when after six more steps forward, but this time he doesn’t stop and strides.  
  
_I’ve been waiting for you._  
  
And there’s that door again. That tall, sturdy-looking black door, standing mightily in front of him and this time it’s slightly ajar. He can’t see what’s exactly inside from where he’s standing and he hesitates for a moment, teeth digging into his lower lip.   
  
_Welcome._  
  
Joonmyun takes two steps forward and sets his fingers onto the handle. It’s just as rough as he remembers. When he carefully pushes the door open, it makes a loud creaking sound as if it hasn’t been opened for a long time.   
  
There’s a rather strong copper smell coming out from inside that makes Joonmyun wrinkles his nose in reflex. His gaze is dropped on the floor with dusts here and there, and somewhere in between ash brown against white tiles begins a shy drop of crimson. The glaring color gets louder and louder until it crashes against a pair of black oxford shoes.   
  
There’s an immediate unsettling feeling as he carefully lifts his gaze, trailing the bold color that gets darker and darker against all too familiar grey fabric of the attire that matches his own.  His eyes land on a pair of bloody hands for a brief moment and this is where dread starts to sink in, as if someone with a terrible humor sense has just injected a terrifying amount of dread into his system just to drive him insane. A bit higher and there’s red and red everywhere, spreading painfully slowly on the white shirt peeking through a maroon-tainted grey blazer, a few buttons he knows supposed to be there missing, exposing just as tainted pale skin.   
  
There are fresh cuts along the neck and it stops just below the jawline. Joonmyun gulps down his fear as his eyes meet with heart-shaped lips, corners twisted slightly to form a what he thinks a smile and then the eyes.  
  
The big, round, owl-like eyes.   
  
“Did you find the room just fine?” Do Kyungsoo asks softly in that low-baritone voice of his.  
  
Joonmyun freezes on the spot, eyes widen in surprise. Kyungsoo’s face is tainted with red, just like his other parts, and it’s almost horrifying how contrast the sincerity of his smile and voice with violent red all over him. Joonmyun parts his lips to say something but there’s nothing coming out; words die in his throat.   
  
“Joonmyun,” Kyungsoo bites his lower lip and the red smeared on a corner of his lips trails down slightly. He takes a step forward. “I — “  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_Run._  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Joonmyun jerks back onto his chair violently.  
  
He gasps for air, panting heavily, white ceiling blurred in his vision. It takes him a few more seconds to realize that he’s sweating profusely, white uniform shirt sticks onto his skin. He blinks as his head starts throbbing and only then does he realize that he’s been crying. He straightens up, wiping the tears out of his eyes, soft sobs escaping his lips.  
  
After calming himself down, he sweeps his gaze around the classroom. It’s empty. His gaze wanders to the clock and the hands show five p.m. sharp. He unconsciously averts his gaze to his wristwatch. It’s still stuck at 04.00 p.m.  
  
There’s no Mr Park in sight when Joonmyun steps out of the class. The school is relatively empty and after a few more steps, he can hear sobs coming from the entrance gate.   
  
Joonmyun squints his eyes and sees a little girl wearing a pretty red dress falls on her knees as she sobs. Joonmyun immediately rushes to her and says, “Are you okay?”  
  
The girl looks up to him, her big eyes brimming with tears. “It hurts,” she says with trembling lips, little index finger pointing at her scraped knees. Joonmyun offers her a smile and starts fishing out for band aids inside his backpack but he finds none. He must have forgotten to bring any since that last one he gave to Chanyeol after the younger injured himself eating  _tteokbeokki_. Joonmyun didn’t even know one can injure himself eating  _tteokbeokki_  but then again, Chanyeol has taught him a lot of things he didn’t know exist (or possible, on that matter).   
  
Joonmyun tilts his head slightly to the side. “Where’s your mother?”  
  
The girl pouts. “Mama says Soohyun should be a good girl and wait for her at the park over there,” she points at a park nearby, “and she went to an auntie’s house nearby that Soohyun doesn’t know. Soohyun is a good girl, so Soohyun waited but there’s a cute cat walking towards this school and it is so  _cute_  Soohyun wants to play with it but Soohyun fell. Soohyun is a bad girl,” she finishes with another sob.  
  
Joonmyun glances inside the school and weighs the option of bringing the girl, Soohyun, to the school’s infirmary. He decides it would be the best option and it wouldn’t take much time anyway. “It’s okay now,” he smiles, “Let Joonmyun- _oppa_  fix you inside, okay, Soohyun-ah? You believe in  _oppa_ , right?”  
  
Soohyun gives him a shy nod and lets him piggyback her, his backpack now against his chest. He takes her to the infirmary at the end of the school hallway. There’s no one there, as expected. The school physician, Zhang Yixing, has most probably gone home. He takes the first aid kit and starts working on Soohyun’s knees carefully. She has stopped crying, thank goodness, and now watching alternatively between him and her knees intently.  
  
“There there, all done,” Joonmyun smiles proudly at his work after a few minutes and lifts his gaze to see a beaming Soohyun. “Wait here for a sec, will you?  _Oppa_  has to wash his hand,” he adds and after she nods in approval, he heads to the washroom nearby. He washes his hand thoroughly and splashes some water on his face before heading back to the infirmary, where he finds something rather unusual.  
  
There’s a door that leads to somewhere the students don’t really know near the infirmary. Some say it leads to an old storage room and some say it’s used to be a prison but Joonmyun believes it’s terribly fake. Nevertheless, no one goes there.   
  
Joonmyun notices that there’s a police line sealing the door. He stops in front of it and traces the bright yellow line with his fingertips, a crease on his forehead.  _Is this...?_  
  
“ _Oppa_?”   
  
Joonmyun jumps in surprise and sees Soohyun pouting in the infirmary doorway. He offers her an apologetic smile, pushing the rest of his thought to the back of his mind and takes Soohyun back to the entrance gate, hand in hand. Soohyun is talking about her pet bunny (“Her name is Honey!” She informs him cheerfully) animatedly and it seems as if she’s not the same girl who cried in front of the school gate just a few minutes previously, and then —  
  
“Joonmyun?”  
  
Joonmyun stops promptly and averts his attention from the girl to the source of voice.  
  
A boy in a casual blue tee and a pair of dark jeans is standing not far from them, expression unreadable as he steps forward.  
  
Beside Joonmyun, Soohyun stops talking and follows his gaze. “ _Oppa_?” She asks questioningly to Joonmyun, tugging at his wrist. “Is this  _oppa_  friend of yours?”  
  
The boy flashes a smile and crouches down in front of Soohyun. “Yes.  _Oppa_ ’s Joonmyun  _oppa_ ’s friend.”  The boy says warmly.   
  
Joonmyun freezes.   
  
“Soohyun? Soohyun, where are you?”   
  
The three of them avert their gazes to the entrance gate to find a woman in cream-colored cardigan and matching skirt looking worried, eyes busy sweeping the surrounding.   
  
Soohyun immediately runs at the sight of her mother, albeit wobbly due to her scraped knees and throws herself into her mother’s arms.  
  
“Soohyun, what happened?” Her mothers asks worriedly, looking at her daughter from head to toe and stops at her healing knees. “Who’s...?”  
  
Soohyun looks up to his mother. ”Soohyun injured her knees and Joonmyun- _oppa_ fixed Soohyun’s knees and Soohyun’s alright now,” she says cheerfully, shifting her gaze to Joonmyun, all bright. Her mother gives them a grateful smile and a small bow. “Thank you so much, I sincerely apologise for the hassle.”  
  
Joonmyun and the boy bow their heads in unison, saying that it’s not a problem at all. “Well, I guess we should get going now,” the mother says, holding Soohyun’s hand in hers gently. “Don’t you have something to tell to  _oppa_ , Soohyun?”   
  
“Thank you,  _oppa_!” Soohyun beams at Joonmyun who offers her a nod and a tentative smile. They wave as they retreat towards the bus stop and board the bus.  
  
Inside, Soohyun sits beside her mother on the last row, fingers start toying with her ponytail.  
  
“Thank God you’re okay. That’s very kind of him,” her mother sighs, “be careful next time, Soohyun. Not everyone is like that kind  _oppa_ , and listen when I tell you to wait, okay?”  
  
Soohyun nods. “Soohyun’s sorry, mama,” she apologizes sincerely and falls quiet. She presses her palms on the window glass and sees the reddish sky in awe, mouth slightly ajar. The sky looks like a burning canvas and she thinks it looks so beautiful and sad at the same time.   
  
The bus stops just a few blocks down her house and she hops off the bus carefully while holding her mother’s hand, afraid of falling on her knees again. They walk home slowly with their shadows following them from behind dutifully, like scorched pool of lights dancing against the pavement. It is only then that she remembers something that she’s found amusing and perplexing at the same time. She looks up to her mother, dark-brown eyes widening in question.   
  
“Mama, why does that  _oppa_  have no shadow?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Joonmyun stands still in front of the entrance gate even after Soohyun and her mother are gone, gaze dropped to the ground after they’re out of sight. The boy also stands still close beside him, casually slipping his hands into his jeans pockets. “So you’re here,” he says softly. Joonmyun braves himself to look up and gazes at the boy.  
  
Do Kyungsoo gives him a heart-shaped smile, something Joonmyun can’t quite dechiper flickering in his dark-brown eyes. Joonmyun blinks. There are millions of questions whirling in his mind right now and before he can’t stop himself he blurts out, “Why are you here?”  
  
Kyungsoo looks pensive briefly before he answers with a shrug. “Because.”  He pauses and adds, “How are you, Joonmyun? It’s been awhile, I suppose.”  
  
_A week, yes,_  Joonmyun replies sarcastically in his head.  _And, oh,  you’re also supposed to be dead, actually._  
  
There must be a logical explanation to all of this, what ever  _this_  is. “Are you...” He says instead and hesitates. “Are you a ghost? Am I still dreaming?”  
  
Kyungsoo looks stunned for a moment before his eyebrows lift. “What?”  
  
Joonmyun feels like an idiot. Or maybe he  _is_ , he’s not really sure. In fact, he’s not sure of anything right now. “You know,” he stratches the back of his neck awkwardly, “there’s a murder happened quite recently in our school? And,” he pauses. “You’re supposed to be... Dead. Are you?”  
  
Silence falls upon them and Joonmyun suddenly feels so  _cold_. He unconsciously rubs his palms together to get some warmth. His palms are clammy with cold sweat. “Kyungsoo, I —“  
  
“Do you have time tomorrow?” Kyungsoo cuts in, gaze drops to the ground. A rather cool autumn wind blows, making the strands of Kyungsoo’s black hair flutter; his bangs fall to shade his eyes from Joonmyun’s curious stare.  
  
“What?” Joonmyun asks, baffled.  
  
Kyungsoo eventually lifts his face, a small chuckle escapes his lips. “Tomorrow. Will you see me? After school.”  
  
Joonmyun considers the offer. This may be his best chance to know the truth. “Where?”  
  
Kyungsoo smiles. “Do you know that door near the infirmary ?”  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Joonmyun stays behind when the final bell rings the next day. He waits for the others to empty the class before shoving the textbooks laying on the desk into his backpack. He gets on his feet after a few more minutes and slings the backpack over his shoulders nervously, then quietly steps out of the class.  
  
There are only a few students left now, all heading towards the entrance gate. Joonmyun stops and waits until they’re out of sight and starts heading to the hallway leading to the infirmary.   
  
A strange feeling of déjà vu embraces him as he walks towards the infirmary; an alien sensation that brings an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach. He stops abruptly in front one of the classes, the door just slightly ajar. There are sounds that bring heat to his cheeks and he swears he feels something inside him burns. He quietly takes a peek inside and sees two familiar figures pressed against each other against the wall, one too tall and one just a little taller than Joonmyun himself, white uniform shirts are missing a few buttons to reveal highly inappropriate parts of skin. Joonmyun quietly yet quickly pulls away from the door when Baekhyun makes inappropriate  _noises_  against Chanyeol and strides away from the scene.  
  
A few steps and some attempts of unseeing what he’s just witnessed later, he’s standing in front of the door. The yellow line is gone and he hesitates for a bit before opening the door slightly. It opens with a creaking sound and he winces; it sounds so loud amidst the overall quietness around him. He bites his lower lip and takes a peek inside.  
  
Behind the door is another hallway. It’s rather dark so he leaves the door open and walks forward. He can hear a faint sound of piano playing ahead and he decelerates his pace, sharping his senses. The sound only gets louder and louder until he finally arrives in front of the tall, sturdy-looking black door he’s seen in his recent dreams. It’s ajar, just exactly as the last time he saw it was in his crimson dream.  
  
He turns around and realizes that this is the exact same place as it was in his dreams.  
  
In between the questions spiraling in his mind, the piano stops.  
  
“Joonmyun?” Comes that low-baritone voice from inside.  
  
Joonmyun blinks.  
  
Kyungsoo comes from behind the door and smiles at the sight of him.“Come on in,” he says softly and the door opened wider with a loud creak . “I’ve been waiting for you.”  
  
Kyungsoo steps back, still in the same tee and pair of dark jeans as he has seen yesterday. His black hair is getting too long as his bangs fall just above his tired eyes. There are sleep lingering under those dark-brown orbs and Joonmyun somehow feels something akin to pity for the boy he’s known from the first day school two years and a half ago.   
  
Joonmyun steps in hesitantly, eyes instinctively scanning the room. There are a few music instruments in the room: a piano,  a cello, some violins and guitars, and some more. They’re all layered with dusts and are dull in colors with faint hint of maroon here and there. There’s also fading white lines ( _looks like it’s made from chalks_ , he notes mentally) on the wall near his back and a few immediate parts of the floor that’s shaping out something he doesn’t quite understand. He peels his gaze off the wall after a few moments and gazes at Kyungsoo; hesitant of what to say.   
  
“Welcome,” Kyungsoo says cheerfully as he leans against the piano, a small bottle in his hand. He sweeps his gaze around the room. “This used to be a music room before they started using the one we use now.”  
  
“How did you find this room? I mean, no one ever goes past the door leading to the hallway here because they scared. No one even knows that there  _is_  a hallway, ” Joonmyun pauses, furrowing his eyebrows. “Well,  _most_  of us.”  
  
A smirk growing from the corners of Kyungsoo’s lips sends chills down Joonmyun’s spine. “I’m not  _most people_. I can’t be, can I?” He sets the bottle on top of the ivory keys, a small bottle of water is sitting calmly beside it.   
  
Then comes a step forward.  
  
Joonmyun instinctively takes one step back. “What do you mean?”  
  
A plea.  
  
A brutal realization.  
  
Joonmyun can almost see the red smearing all over Kyungsoo.  
  
The shoes. The white uniform shirt. The lips.  
  
The bloody hands. “Kyungsoo?”  
  
Kyungsoo takes a few more steps and he’s so  _close_. “It would’ve been easier if you said yes.” A sad smile. “Wouldn’t it?” Another step. “I begged you. But you didn’t listen. I knew it would end like that.” He pauses. “But I honestly didn’t expect  _this._ ”  
  
Joonmyun’s  lips remain shut. He takes another step back and his back hit the wall, clammy palms tainted with chalky crumbs drawn on the bruised surface.  
  
Kyungsoo gently takes Joonmyun into his embrace, resting his chin on Joonmyun’s shoulder, heart beating steadily against Joonmyun’s chest. “Do you remember?” He whispers, almost longingly. “A week ago, we’re in this exact same position. Same place. Same time. But now a different you and me, no?”

  
A chuckle.  
  
Joonmyun shakes his head slowly, a whisper escapes his lips. “I don’t understand.”  
  
_Liar._  
  
“You’re smart, Joonmyun.” Kyungsoo murmurs. “You can’t possibly not understand.” He buries his face into the crook of Joonmyun’s pale neck. “We were here,” he whispers against Joonmyun’s bare skin, sending shivers through the latter’s spine.   
  
“I told you I loved you. But you didn’t understand. You didn’t understand how it hurts to surpress this feeling for years, too see you every single day and not having you.” A sigh. “It’s killing me.”  
  
“And I kissed you. Like this,” Kyungsoo leans in and presses his lips against Joonmyun’s tenderly. Joonmyun stays still, paralyzes by scattered emotions and thoughts, so he flutters his eyes shut. Kyungsoo pulls back soon after, a smile rises from the corners of his lips. “But you pushed me away and slapped me. And then you said you were sorry. Were you?”  
  
Kyungsoo takes four steps backwards and runs his fingers across his unkempt black hair. “What am I doing?” He chuckles, “Why am I talking to a ghost?”  
  
Joonmyun opens his eyes slowly. When he lifts his face, a smile is still playing on Kyungsoo’s lips. “You came for me, didn’t you?”  
  
“What are you talking about,” the words comes out trembling and Joonmyun can hear the fear in his own voice; can taste the bitter taste the words left on the tip of his tongue.   
  
Kyungsoo says nothing in response and instead walks towards the piano, taking the small bottle he’s brought with him back in his hand. “I’m sorry I’m such a coward and not brave enough to face death like you did,” he says and uncaps the bottle, taking one pill out; hand surprisingly steady. “I’m really sorry, Joonmyun.”  
  
“What are you talking about,” it comes out in hysteria now. His hands are shaking and his vision blurred, but there’s no tears.  
  
Everything just suddenly starts to fade away.  
  
“You know what, Joonmyun,” Kyungsoo says suddenly, as if he’s just remembered something important he has to say. “Your heart is really beautiful. It’s really warm and tender, just like I imagined it would be. It’s an honor to be the one that took and owned your beautiful heart, even if just for a little while.”   
  
A genuine smile.  
  
Kyungsoo raises the water bottle in lieu of a toast and brings death into his mouth calmly then gulps it down with the water. He sinks to the floor not long after, crippled breath and red-smeared lips as the glaring color choked out of his mouth. Joonmyun rushes forward in reflex and kneels down, immediately nurses the younger’s head in his arms. The surrealness of everything strangely makes Joonmyun think about eternity.  
  
A smile in the color of red rose grows from the corners of his lips, of silent  _I love you I love you I love you_  in hue, and life-stained words roll out of his mouth. A choked, almond-scented, bloody mess. “Lean… Closer,” he gasps, “I… Something… Ask…”  
  
Joonmyun leans in and Kyungsoo softly whispers the truth; his final plea.   
  
Kyungsoo sinks softly to the ground as Joonmyun starts to fade; translucent feet, chest, arms are washed away by warm pool of lights and he’s supposed to be freaking out right now but, really, all he feels right now is a sense of flawless tranquility that he thinks he has never felt before.   
  
As Kyungsoo takes his last trembling breath, Joonmyun flutters his eyes shut.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
_In another life, would you love me?_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In an empty classroom, a mere length of time away, the clock strikes four.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**—- epilogue —-**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
**KOREA DAILY**

WEDNESDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2013

  
**HIGH SCHOOL MURDER SHOCKS NATION**

On Tuesday afternoon (17/09), A (19) was found dead in an unused music room of SA High School, Seoul. A was found brutally murdered with his heart missing, corpse full with bruises and fatal wounds caused by sharp objects.

It is suspected that A was murdered by fellow classmate B (18) who immediately went missing after the crime took place. The suspicion is also supported with fingerprint evidences and testimonies given by fellow classmates and teachers.

The police is currently on the lookout for B. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
**KOREA DAILY**

THURSDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2013

  
**HIGH SCHOOL MURDER FOUND DEAD**

B (18), the prime suspect of the murder of A (19) at SA High School (17/09), Seoul, was found dead yesterday morning (25/09) at the same place as the murder took place last week. The forensics team estimated B died on Tuesday (24/09) afternoon. A bottle of cyanide pills and a half-filled water bottle were found near his corpse.

The incident has caused panics among the students and classes were immediately dismissed for the day. Parents are horrified of the second death happened in the school two weeks in a row and demand guarantee for their children’s safety.

There is still no official statement from the school nor the police.

 

**Author's Note:**

> There seems to be quite a few people that got confused with this story and for that I apologise, it is most likely caused by my poor writing skill OTL. Anyway, like I have said in a reply to a reader on LJ, I originally intended to write a some sort of side story to this, written in Kyungsoo's point of view, to make things clearer. But alas, more than a year have passed since I posted this piece and I still haven't managed to write that side story. I don't know when I would be able to write and post that story exactly, but I promise I will try to as soon as I can.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all liked it!


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